This research examines how the use of crime media is associated with phenomena such as fear of crime, social trust and policy attitudes. Emphasis is placed on the role of moral and other emotions, such as anger, evoked by media images of violence and crime. The research also considers and examines the ways people are able to neutralise the sense of looming danger.

This topic of research holds great practical importance, because the developments of criminal law and local crime prevention programmes are increasingly influenced by popular demands based on retributive emotions. As the social welfare model of crime reduction, which is positively related with feelings of security appears to be rapidly loosing ground to the penal code model in the Nordic countries it is essential to examine whether and how the media is related to this process.

In the first phase of the research, existing large scale survey databases are used to analyse the role of crime news consumption in the genesis of crime fears and insecurity. Apart from analysing the impact of crime news consumption on fear, media effects on general social trust will be analysed. The central aim is to locate social groups, which are particularly vulnerable, or particularly resilient, to sensational crime reporting in terms of their ability to participate in society.

In the second phase the violent content of a Finnish reality crime programme ‘Poliisi-tv' (Police Television) will be examined. The defining feature of this programme is that it claims to present true stories about crime, criminals and victims. In this, it is a hybrid of form of programming: it resembles aspects of the news, but like entertainment programmes, it airs in prime time. The programmes' vignettes will be analysed by tracing the building elements or the narrative script of a typical violent crime presented in the programme.

In the third phase of the research the analysed reality crime programme vignettes are used as cues in group discussions. The programme in general will be discussed in terms of its information and entertainment value, and questions concerning the portrayal of crime on television and viewers' own crime experiences will be raised. Viewer evaluations on the official goal of the programme to engage the public in assisting the police will be addressed, as well as the emotional responses evoked by the contents. Of special interest is whether feelings of retribution are unleashed, and how personal experiences qualify or shape such responses.